The Sochi Autodrom in Russia, home to this weekend's fourth round of the season, is very challenging for the cars and very different from the tracks on which they have raced so far this year.
There are a lot of low- and medium-speed corners that require heavy braking while at the same time, there are some very fast corners - turn three and 12 in particular - that can take the life out of the tyres.
Fuel management is important as drivers spend a lot of time on full throttle: this track actually boasts the highest race fuel requirement in the whole calendar.
The track surface is smooth and Force India driver Sergio Perez is expecting lower tyre degradation compared to the first races of the year, as they use the softest compounds of the Pirelli range.
In 2015 Sergio made it to the podium here and after securing points at the opening three rounds, the young Mexican is aiming high and hoping to take advantage of any and every opportunity that comes his way.
“I said after Bahrain that I was very proud of my team. We never gave up and dug deep to recover a great result,” Sergio said. “It was even more special because we continued our run of races in the points – it's now thirteen consecutive races. When we qualified in P18, I thought it would be hard to do it, but we delivered a perfect race and really deserved this result.”
“I think the start of the season has gone really well and we can be happy with the results we have achieved already. The team has done an excellent job to read the races, call the strategy and take the opportunities. That's a real strength of this team”
“I have good memories from Sochi and our podium in 2015 shows that anything is possible. I think every driver enjoys turn three because it's an unusual corner that puts high energies through the car. The rest of the lap is similar to a street circuit. Overtaking has never been easy so there's extra pressure on getting high up the grid in qualifying.”
